Rear Axle Strip Down - Part 3

Today's job was to dismantle the rear drive shafts and universal joints.  The stub axles and the differential flanges will be reused.  The main driveshafts are exchanged with AK Sportscars for a pair of shortened items.  The universal joints themselves will be replaced with new items.

Rear Driveshaft

The universal joints consist of a 4-legged 'spider' with a roller bearing cup on each leg.  2 legs are located in the driveshaft and 2 legs in the stub / flange axle end.

Universal Joint - Photo courtesy of SNG Barratt

Having read through the AK Manual I assumed that to take the universal joints apart would be the reverse of installation so that if I could push the bearing cups out of both sides of the drive shaft or axle end then the spider would simply fall out.  Well it sort of worked like that, but as with everything so far on the rear end strip-down, it didn't go quite to plan.

The first step was to remove the circlips that hold each of the bearing cups in place.  Despite both ends of the driveshaft being caked in a fair amount of grease all the circlips proved to be either wedged or rusted into their housings.

Doesn't look too bad but circlip was stuck fast

The removal technique involved spraying with penetrating oil, application of a blow torch to heat up the half shaft and then another application of penetrating oil to cool the circlip and hopefully persuade it to loosen up.  Some additional persuasion in the form of a hammer and cold chisel on the clips eventually allowed me to either use a pair of circlip pliers to remove the clips or to lever out the clip with a screwdriver.

Using a screwdriver to pry the circlip out

I removed the clip from one side and used a socket with a slightly smaller diameter than the circlip on the other side in my hydraulic press to push down on one bearing cup to push the other side partially out of the stub axle.  I used a 32mm socket under the shaft to allow the bearing cup to push part way out of the bottom of the axle end.

Pushing bottom bearing cup out part-way

With the bearing cup on the top pushed in slightly removal of the circlip on that side was much easier using circlip pliers.  I then turned over the driveshaft and used the press to push down on the driveshaft to partially press the other bearing cup back out of the stub axle.

Top bearing cup pressed part-way out - pressing the bottom cup out

With both cups now pushed partway out I thought that would be sufficient to enable the spider to be removed from the stub axle.  I was wrong....

However there was now sufficient play on the spider to enable me to insert a screwdriver into one of the bearing cups and so I thought I could try and drift out the cup.  That didn't work either although it did crush the top of the cup enough that some of the roller bearings fell out into the bottom of the cup.  This had the effect of filling up the bottom of the cup so that when I put the shaft back in the press I managed to pop the cup out of the bottom and release the stub axle from the spider.

(During disassembly of some of the other universal joints I did manage to drift out a couple of the bearing cups with the screwdriver - but most of them did require the above technique to remove them)

Success!!

Separated stub axle

  

Half shaft with stub axle removed and spider still in place

The other bearing cup was then easily pressed out of the stub axle.  Removal of the spider from the drive shaft followed a similar process although the absence of the stub axle meant that I needed to be a bit more creative with holding the shaft in the press to get some leverage to push the bearing cups out.

Pushing out top bearing cup

Spider removed

Pressing out the final bearing cup

I then used the same technique to remove the differential flange and universal joint from the other end of the driveshaft. 

On one of the ends I managed to pop the top of one of the bearing cups whilst pressing it out which gave a good picture of the end of the spider and the roller bearings in place (see photo below).

Roller bearing assembly with spider leg and grease gallery visible

Both drive shafts are now fully separated.  Next and final job on the rear is to separate the lower wishbones from their pivot shafts and the wishbone tie.

Rear Axle Strip Down - Part 2

The next step in dismantling the rear hub carriers was to remove the brake shield.  This needs to be cut down as part of the AK build so the fact that the edges were all rusted and knackered did not matter.  My main issue, as I mentioned previously was that the holes for the handbrake shoe retaining pins are distorted and oversized on both sides and don't look like they will hold the pins in place for long! - so I will need to come up with a fix at some point

The shield is held in place by four torx head screws (2 upper / 2 lower).  The first side came undone relatively easily using a spanner on the shaft of a torx-head screwdriver to loosen the screws.  The second side proved more troublesome.  The two lower (larger) screws came out no bother but the smaller upper screws would not shift.

Attempting to undo them with the spanner / torx screwdriver combination eventually stripped the head sufficiently that I could not get any purchase with the torx driver.  Plan B was to cut a slot in the top of each screw with a dremel and try again with a large flat-bladed screw driver.  That didn't work, so Plan C involved buying an impact screwdriver from Toolstation.  Unfortunately that didn't work either.

Plan D involved using a blowtorch to try and get some heat into the aluminium hub carrier and using a hammer and cold chisel to try and drift the screws out.  I thought I was getting somewhere when the screw started to turn after a few clouts with the hammer.  At this point I switched to the impact driver and slowly but steadily the screw started turning......

Well the screw head started turning - after two turns the head sheared off leaving the rest of the screw thread still in the hub carrier.  It was a similar story with the second screw.

Today's tools include a blowtorch, impact driver, hammer and cold chisel.

The result being sheared off screw heads....

So another job to add to the list later which will involve trying to drill out the rest of the screws and re-tap the holes.

With the brake shield off, I could then remove handbrake retaining clip and cable and then the inner and outer oil seals from both hubs together with the bearings.  The outer bearing races were drifted out quite easily.  The inner races required me to purchase a new 1.5kg club hammer as my dad's old and trusty hammer was just not up to the job!

Farewell to my dad's trusty club hammer - welcome Mjolnir!!

I removed the lower fulcrum sleeve and taper bearings by using a socket to knock one end of the sleeve out of the bearing which enabled the sleeve with one bearing attached to be removed and the other bearing could then be pried out easily with a screwdriver.  All the bearings and seals looked in quite good condition from the outside but removal of the second shaft was accompanied by a large pile of rust.  One bearing was completely rusted up - good job these will all be replaced!

One rusted up hub fulcrum taper bearing (and one not so..)

And the accompanying rusted bearing race

I'm a bit stumped how to get the taper bearing races out.  There are two slots (visible in picture above) behind the race but I can't work out how to get any kind of drift in behind them to knock the races out.  I don't want to try and pry them out from the front in case of damaging the aluminium hub carrier.  A pause for thought is required.